Organization Updates
Welcome to our new blog! We are International HELP – Health Education for Local People, and we have a big vision to change the world!
International HELP started with one person’s experience working with a community in Nicaragua. Our founder partnered with a clinic in Nicaragua and trained local people to be health workers, providing them with the skills, resources, platform, and group structure necessary to positively influence the health in their community. The program was created in a way to be sustainable and effective, run by the local people. Out of this successful program, International HELP was started with the desire to implement that same idea in many places throughout the world, transforming one community at a time.
International HELP seeks to educate and empower local people to develop their own communities for health improvement. We come alongside already established local organizations, such as local nonprofits, churches, or mission organizations, and help empower the local people to improve their community’s health. We act as consultants, providing the health training for issues specific to the individual communities, namely those relating to nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene. The thing that makes International HELP unique is its focus on local partnerships and on empowering communities in sustainable ways (rather than just giving handouts). We take a community-based approach that shares decision-making and responsibility with the local people to result in long-term improvements.
International HELP is now an official 501(c)(3) organization, and we are just beginning our fundraising and grant writing. Currently, we are working on a project for a Latino population in Metropolitan DC to train community health workers to be health care leaders and educators for their community. Additionally, we are in the beginning stages of creating a community health worker program in some remote villages in Honduras, with plans of more to come.
This blog will be a place for us to share with our partners about our projects, and about why we do what we do and how we do it. We invite you to come on this journey with us!
